Line #21 Film/AceHigh


1	[[quoteright:291:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ace_high.jpg]]
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3	''Ace High'' (Italian: ''I quattro dell'Ave Maria'', literally translated as "The Four of the Hail Mary") is an Italian spaghetti Western by Giuseppe Colizzi from 1968. The film is the second in a trilogy started with ''[[Film/GodForgivesIDont God Forgives... I Don't!]]'' and ended with ''Film/BootHill''.
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5	After Cat Stevens and Hutch Bessy (Creator/TerenceHill and Creator/BudSpencer) collect the bounty on Bill San Antonio, the antagonist from the previous film, they are robbed by the bandit Cacopoulos (Creator/EliWallach), who had escaped from prison. Tracking him down, they learned that Caco gave it all away, and is on his own mission of revenge against those who abandoned him. His friends were the banker Harold (whom he'd already killed), the murderous Paco, and casino owner Drake. On the way, they are joined by an acrobat (Creator/BrockPeters) who helps Caco to get Cat and Butch's money back.
6	----
7	!!This film provides examples of:
8	* AntiHero: Cacopoulos is vicious, but he's also a nice guy once you get to know him.
9	* {{Bandito}}: Cacopoulos is one of Greek-Cherokee-Mexican heritage.
10	* BaitAndSwitchComment: Hutch comments on a gallows being put up in the town square. "They got some nasty folks around here. They hang people, too."
11	* BewareTheQuietOnes: Cat is implied to be much deadlier than Hutch.
12	-->'''Cat''' ''(to Cacopoulos)'': Oh, and another thing. This time if you get even one little idea in that worm-eaten head of yours... I'll kill you.
13	-->'''Hutch''' ''(to Cacopoulos)'' He's not like me, you know. He'll do it.
14	* BigBadEnsemble: Paco and Drake, some of Caco's old partners.
15	* BigBadFriend: Drake was once Cacopoulos' partner in crime, but ditched him after a heist, and then he or one of his men killed a deputy and framed him for it.
16	* BigDamnHeroes: Cat and an army of revolutionaries arrive to save Caco and Hutch from the firing squad.
17	* CatchPhrase: Caco has, "My grandfather used to say..."
18	* ChuckCunninghamSyndrome: Cacopoulos completely vanished by the start of ''Boot Hill''.
19	* ClothingDamage: Hutch's new clothes get torn in a brawl at the beginning of the film.
20	* DecoyProtagonist: Cat Stevens and Hutch Bessy are the first characters we see in the film, but this is Cacopoulos' story.
21	* DisappearedDad: Caco mentions in his backstory how his father was murdered when he was an infant.
22	* DisneyDeath: [[spoiler: Cacopoulos faints after he's shot from a gunfight with Drake]]. Hutch assumes him to be dead, but Thomas checks his pulse and proves him wrong.
23	* DistractedByTheSexy: Caco sleeps with a hooker at a cantina while waiting for his revenge plan on Drake to start, and wakes up to find that [[spoiler: she stole all his money]]. Oops.
24	* {{Expy}}:
25	** Cacopoulos is a kinder, gentler, slightly smarter [[Film/TheGoodtheBadandtheUgly Tuco]]. He is played by Creator/EliWallach, and he has a St. Benedict's medal strung on a pouch like Tuco.
26	** Cat is sort of an Expy of the Man with No Name.
27	* FallenOnHardTimesJob: Cacopoulos gets a job in a kitchen after having gambled his money away while investigating Drake's casino.
28	* FalseFriend: Drake is this to Cacopoulos.
29	* FixingTheGame: How Drake was able to cheat Cacopoulos out of the money he brought with him.
30	* FreudianTrio: Cacopoulos is TheKirk, Cat is TheSpock and Hutch is TheMcCoy.
31	* FriendToAllChildren: Cacopoulos comforts several babies while talking to Hutch, a sign of his tender and gentle side.
32	* FourTemperamentEnsemble: Hutch is Choleric, Cat is Melancholic, Thomas is Sanguine and Cacopoulos is Phlegmatic.
33	* TheGadfly: Caco playfully teases a drunken Hutch by pretending to be his own Wanted poster and changing his expression every time he looks away.
34	* TheGamblingAddict: Cacopoulos. He loses money in a game of roulette while chasing down Drake in the casino.
35	* GilliganCut: When the newly wealthy Cat and Hutch see a man having his picture taken:
36	-->'''Hutch''': You know, I've never had my picture taken.
37	-->'''Cat''': Well, now's as good a time as any.
38	-->''(beat)''
39	-->'''Hutch''': No.
40	-->''(Cut to him sitting in front of a camera.)''
41	** Another one occurs when Cacopoulos and Hutch infiltrate a place of execution, where Paco (Livio Lorenzon) is ordering the deaths of revolutionaries.
42	-->'''Hutch''': Like you said. Child's play.
43	-->'''Cacopoulos''': Leave it to me.
44	-->''(Cut to the two of them about to be executed by the firing squad)''
45	-->'''Hutch''': "Leave it to me", huh?
46	-->'''Cacopoulos''': I didn't force you to come.
47	* GirlyRun: Cacopoulos does this a little, given the actor he's played by.
48	* HeterosexualLifePartners: Hutch and Cat
49	* ImprovisedArmor: Sort of. When Harold throws a knife at Cacopoulos, he (Cacopoulos) uses the chair he's sitting in as a shield.
50	* IronicNickname: Caco calls Hutch "Tiny" a few times.
51	* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Cacopoulos. Sure, he's a bandit and a murderer, but one who occasionally helps the poor and needy. He even decides to give back the money he stole from Cat and Hutch. He does seem to want to make everybody happy.
52	* KickTheDog: Drake trash-talks Cacopoulos when they finally meet, calls him a "lice-infected jailbird" and tells him how pathetic he is, that he can only arouse pity.
53	* MistreatmentInducedBetrayal: Caco was abandoned by his partners during a heist, and then framed for murdering a deputy, causing him to start getting his revenge on them.
54	* NotMeThisTime: Though Cacopoulos is a bandit and a murderer, he did not kill the deputy while he was out at the saloon, and someone else framed him while he was passed out.
55	* OnlyOneName: Cacopoulos. We never get to find out if its his first or last name.
56	* PoliticallyIncorrectVillain: Drake's henchman Maurice, who insults the "Negro" Thomas.
57	* RedOniBlueOni: Butch is emotional and aggressive and Cat is calm and rational.
58	* {{Revenge}}: Caco wants this against his comrades who double-crossed him.
59	* SpaghettiWestern
60	* SatelliteCharacter: Cat Stevens has little to no character outside of being TheStoic and being HeterosexualLifePartners with Hutch.
61	* SpitTake: Hutch does one when he finds out that the old man the had been staying with had not only been rescued from poverty by Cacopoulos, but that Cacopoulos had handed the man Cat and Hutch's bounty money.
62	* TheStoic: Cat Stevens.
63	* TheUnreveal: We never get to learn in Cacopoulos' penultimate scene what his grandfather used to say because he faints mid-sentence.
64	* TokenMinority: Thomas, who is a black acrobat.

Context Film / AceHigh